The Waitress's Note
by AlphaHikari
Summary: Bonnibel Bubblegum thought she was just going out to dinner with her best friend. The night takes a turn after she reads what her waiter had scribbled on her bill. There is no such thing as a normal night out for her.


My friend told me to meet her at Tree Trunk's Cottage. That was the town's main restaurant now. It opened up a few years ago and rapidly gained popularity because of the trademark pies it offered. The restaurant itself was cozy; booths lined the walls, picnic clothes draped every tabletop, seats were cushioned and comfortable to laze in, and a fireplace warmed the interior. The owner was a sweet older woman with the heart of a saint. If a customer was having a hard day, she would serve them a piece of her apple pie on the house.

I was running late but I figured that stalling a few more minutes couldn't do any harm. I liked to think while I traveled from place to place. She would understand why I took so long to arrive. While I had the chance, I reflected over my most recently failed experiment. Any misjudged variable was accounted for, and while I made plans to start over with this new information, I needed to find the funding to do so. There were many places that I could work, but I'm not much of a people's person. That trait of mine is really going to hinder my progress at this rate.

The small bell announced my arrival as I entered the area. There was a booth towards the back that my few friends and I frequented so I head straight for it. My friend was there already but I knew she would be. She seemed to always get to a place first. Lady was a mysterious yet open person. I have yet to understand how she does the things she can do.

"What took you so long? Thinking about a boy?"

Just that question alone was enough to put a smile on my face. She knew that I wasn't thinking about some guy. I've told her time and time again that I'm not looking for any relationships; I needed to invest my time in my work. "No, but I did ponder over my last experiment while I was on my way here. I think this time, I will get it right."

"That's what you said last time, and the time before that, and the time before that. I just don't get it, Bonnibel. Why do you want to create living candy? We eat that stuff. Living candy will become the ultimate guilt trip."

"Just how is living candy a guilt trip?"

"I'll show you."

She called over the nearest waitress. The woman approached our booth with an air of playful arrogance. She had her long, dark tresses subdued into a high ponytail, but her hair still trailed past her lower back. I also noticed that she was unusually pale, but her lack of color didn't seem to bother her.

"What can I get for you two cute girls?"

I don't know why, but I just wanted to punch her in the face. I have no reason to feel this aggression towards her, but I do. It's so strange, I don't even know her.

"I'll have a slice of the apple pie for now, thank you."

"Sure, coming right up. Do you want to order something?"

I thought about it, but decided against ordering. Something just doesn't sit right with me about this waitress. I can't begin to point out exactly what, but I know that if I talk to her, something horrible is bound to happen. I shake my head from side to side to indicate that I want nothing and she leaves. IT doesn't take long before she appears again with a fresh slice of apple pie.

"Here you go. If you need anything else, just shout of my name and I'll be right over. It's Marceline, by the way."

That's another thing that people love about this place; you can call the staff by their names. Makes a person feel as if they are right at home with people they know.

"Now watch closely. You see this piece of pie, Bonnibel?" Lady asked me. I nodded. She lifts her fork and jabs it into the pie. "You see how I just stabbed it?"

"What is your point? You want me to discuss how you eat pies?"

"I'm getting to it, now pay attention. You see, if this pie were alive, and I stabbed it like so, what do you think would happen?"

I stayed silent.

"It would scream and possible writhe in pain. Now if I continued this process and slowly ate it piece by piece, what do you think would be going on?"

"It would be in continuous agony while begging you to not devour it or possible tell you to end its life quickly?" I offered.

"That's exactly what I'm saying. Now can you understand why I am against the idea of living food?"

"Yes," I sighed. I hated it when she made a point. I never had a good rebuttal to her arguments because she always appealed to a person's conscience.

"Awesome so let's order some real food then get out of here. Hey, Marceline, we need you again," Lady shouted halfway across the room at the other girl. It looked like she was on her break, but she didn't seem to mind coming to serve us.

"It took you long enough. How about I save you the time of looking at the menu and offer today's specials instead. I promise you won't regret ordering it."

"That will be fine for me. What about you, Bonnibel?"

"Your name's Bonnibel?" Marceline turned to me. She looked like she had some underhanded comment to throw out, but was holding it in.

"Yes it is, and I'll have the same as my friend here."

"Sure thing, your orders should be ready within the next ten minutes."

I watched her saunter away towards the kitchens. Marceline's attitude jus threw me off. I want to insult her, but what would I say? She has enough confidence to last her for days if needed. I can just tell that much by looking at her. Plus, if I did say anything offensive, Lady would just reprimand me for it later. That's something that I did not want to go through.

"You look like you want to murder her. What's up?"

"I swear sometimes it's like you can read minds."

"No, I can just recognize a hostile face when I see one. Now why are you mentally attacking our sweet waitress?"

"I'm not mentally attacking her. I just don't like her."

"And why is that?"

"I don't know. I can't explain why I don't like her, but I know that I just don't. It's weird."

"Well, since it's you, it probably doesn't mean anything. It takes a while for you to warm up to people, so maybe you just need to get used to her. We can come here more often so you can, if you'd like."

"I doubt that I will want to but whatever."

Marceline arrived shortly after that with two plates of spaghetti along with some salad. She placed each of the dishes in front of us and told us to call her when we were ready for the bill. After that, I didn't see her anymore.

The food was delicious. My mouth has never watered so much from just eating spaghetti before. Maybe Marceline isn't as bad as I make her out to be. I mean, this special is fantastic, and since she is the only reason we got it, she can't be all that bad of a person. We finished our food in record time, and called her back over to the booth.

"We would like to have our bill now," I stated as soon as she walked up. She looked surprised that I had spoken first, but reached into her apron pocket for the bill anyway.

"Once you get your money straight, you can pay at the register."

Lady and I debated over whom would pay the bill, but I won the argument this time. I figured that since she had paid during our last outing, then the least I could do is pay for tonight's meal. I took the bill and headed to the register where Marceline stood waiting. She was tapping an unknown beat on the countertop.

When I got there, she keyed in my amount and I paid for everything using my bank card. Sometime during the exchange she had slid my bill to her side of the counter and scribbled a note on the back of it. The only reason I knew this was because I read it on my way back to the booth. Now I know why I had such feelings of disgust towards her earlier.

'Open your eyes to your surroundings more and you won't miss so much of what's really going on, Bonni.'

Lady and I bid each other farewell at the entrance before heading off to our homes. It was around eight o'clock now so the streets were pretty dark. I didn't mind the eeriness because I was confident that I could defend myself if anyone were to attack me.

I decided to take a shortcut through a few alleys so I could make it across town quicker. That had to be the worst decision of my entire night. While I walked through the second alley, some creep leapt at me from behind a dumpster. He tackled me from behind and sent us both tumbling to the gravel.

"Princess, I've come to take you with me. We shall marry on the morrow."

What the heck? This guy had to be some kind of lunatic. First he tackles me, then calls me 'Princess' and threatens to kidnap me, and I'm supposed to marry him? There are a lot of crazy people in this town, but he is the first one that's ever attacked me before.

"You're crazy," I mumble. I'm on my hands and knees. The fall we took gifted me with a nice blow to the head.

"You're only saying that because we haven't married yet, but don't worry. Your King will take care of you."

I wasn't going to waste my time arguing with this guy. He wouldn't be able to comprehend what was going on anyway. What I needed to do was get away from him. So I turned my back and began to flee.

He was a lot faster than I had anticipated. From first glance, you'd think that his age would make him slow and out of shape. Obviously, that wouldn't be the case for this guy. I had hardly taken three steps before he tackled me again. Then he perched himself on my back, effectively pinning me to the ground.

"You shouldn't try to leave like that. How can I take care of you from now on if you try to run away? I see that you will be quite the hand full."

"Get off me, you creep. I'm not going to marry you."

"Hush, Princess, don't you worry. After tomorrow, we'll live happily together forever, just you wait."

I have a nagging feeling that there is something that I am forgetting. Then Marceline's message flashes through my mind. I should have listened to her advice. Now, I'll probably be killed by some lunatic in a random back alley all because I thought I could take care of myself. This is just perfect.

The old man is still rambling about how perfect our marriage will be when he is thrown off of me. Standing between us is the waitress from earlier, and she looks furious. She is practically shaking in her anger, but I'm not sure if it's aimed at me or the guy lying on the ground. Then she twists herself to face the man and starts shouting at him about stalking people, and how much trouble he is causing her.

"I want this to be the last time this happens, Simon. I mean that. You can't keep chasing people. Do you want to get arrested and sent away?" She questioned him. The man, Simon, just whimpered. "I didn't think that you did. Now this is what you are going to do; you're going to go home and get in bed, do you understand? I want you home and in bed before I get back."

He left as if his life depended on it, which in a sense, it might have. Even I wouldn't want to face this girl when she was angry. Marceline was still shaking when she faced me. I picked myself off the ground and started to brush the dirt off the front of my clothes.

"Thanks for the help."

"What is your problem?" She grunts out. Her teeth are clenched and her hands are balled into fists.

"My problem is that I was just attacked by some random guy in an alley."

"Yea, well, I warned you. Instead of heeding advice, you walk through alleys in the dark like you're in the freaking 'Wizard of OZ'. Are you stupid?!"

"You warned me? A riddle on the back of a bill counts as a warning to you?" Then it hit me, "You knew this would happen!"

That seemed to calm her down. The girl almost looked bashful but I didn't care about whether or not she was embarrassed. "You knew that guy was after me this whole time, but didn't try to tell me that!"

"It's not that I didn't try, it's just that…."

"It's just what? Look, I don't have time for excuses. I'm going to report him to the police and then continue on with my life."

"No, don't do that!" I was stopped. Marceline held my wrist in a death grip. Her face displayed desperation and fear when I turned to her. "Don't turn Simon in. I'm sorry that he attacked you and everything, but you have to believe me when I say that he didn't mean to."

"Why should I do what you say?"

"Please, don't call the police. I promise that this won't happen again. Simon doesn't understand what he did. His mind is messed up. You would just be handing the police a person they couldn't possibly begin to deal with. I take care of him so I would know."

"Prove it."

"What?"

"Prove to me that he is really as you say," I don't know why I was challenging her like this. It was pretty obvious that the guy was crazy, but I just felt the need to challenge her.

"How am I supposed to do that? Wasn't tonight enough?"

"Fine, then I will just let the authorities handle the situation."

"Okay, okay, I'll prove it. Meet me at Tree Trunk's Cottage this time tomorrow and I'll be ready to prove anything that you want," She ran her had through her hair, "I just hope that I don't regret this."

With that we parted ways. Tomorrow would prove to be quite interesting. I wonder what I'll discover while I'm with her.

* * *

**Finally posted a new story, but it feels just...I don't know. I've been depressed lately and it's starting to affect everything I do. Plus I think I'm getting an ulcer from all the stress that I've been under these last few months. Stress and depression are not fun things to deal with at the same time.**

**Anyway, drop a review if you have the interest and time. I would really appreciate anything that you guys have to say. I just need a pick me up right now. You have no idea how much your words mean to me. **


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